Music to My Weary Bones
When I bought my house I knew there were a lot of trees on my quarter-acre lot. The first time I raked the leaves, I counted the trees. Forty. Even if eight of them are cedar it still means I have thirty-two trees dropping leaves. Every year. Fortunately, the trees and brush on the lower quarter of my pie-shaped lot are so thick that I don’t consider it to be lawn. Every autumn, for nine years years, I raked leaves into piles, raked them onto a tarp, then carried them downhill, to the giant leaf-compost pile I had fenced off. Then I walked uphill, to load the tarp again. Twenty to thirty times. Fifteen to twenty hours over a couple of weeks. Until now. I finally broke down and bought a gas-powered backpack leaf blower. I worked with ear-protecting headphones, but as I joined my neighbors in blowing leaves I’m sure it sounded like a chorus of screaming banshees to the outside world. All I heard was classical music on Spotify as I blew those leaves downhill.
fall cacophony
blue jay squawks in protest
all sounds are muted
flying leaves in carefree dance
as Vivaldi’s music plays
This tanka prose is my response to Colleen’s #Tanka Tuesday
Weekly #Potery Challenge No. 254, #SpecificForm.
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Reblogged this on OPENED HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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Huh; Vivaldi, you say, eh? I’d probably go with Coleman Hawkins or maybe some classic Be-Bop to keep my energy level up. We’ve got 10 acres here, mostly open, so almost no leaves to move, and we only mow about 3, which I pay some other guy to do for me. I know he wears headphones while he does it. I’ll have to ask hm who / what he listens to.
Cool write Ken. Thanks.
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Vivaldi is a bit of poetic license. After about fifteen minutes a jumped tracks to Bitches Brew, and then to some John Lee Hooker.
Thanks, Ron..
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What a wonderful symphony for the senses, Ken. I can see and hear all those leaves and leaf blowers! Good for you, making life easier on yourself. That’s a lot of trees!!
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Thank you, Colleen. At least it exposes me to some fresh air. (As long as I stay out of the dust.)
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Oh, for sure, Ken. You don’t have any snow yet?
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None. Back up to 70 for Friday, then back to the 50s. The average temp for this time of year is 47.
Last year, we had snow the first week of November, although it didn’t stay long.
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It’s been cold here and by this weekend Michigan will be in the 50’s. The little snow we have will be gone. It’s strange weather.
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Fabulous – I’ll now look at workers wearing headphones pondering what they may be listening to … Had never occurred to me they could be hearing anything beyond a softer version of the roar I rushed to get away from asap. Nice shift in perspective – thank you.
Love the diagram of your lot … a bit of tilt and seems the leaves would shift down to that point on their own …
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Thank you. These are rated at 30db. It makes everything muted, and I fully appreciated the music. I bought hearing aids earlier this year, and there connected to my phone with Bluetooth, so I streamed Spotify.
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Music is a balm for many tasks. (K)
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Ah, yes!
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Nature’s abundance can be quite …. tiresome sometimes, even for all the blessings and goodness it brings. But yeah, that’s a lot of trees and so many leaves …. an uphill battle for sure, so even if not a particularly “happy” choice, a good leaf blower is an investment that will pay for itself easily, if not in the first season, by the end of the second, because there’s only so much punishment a body, even a healthy and fit one, can take. I too have mega leaves …. living in the hills …. cottage country …. and I rake some, tarp haul some, and leave the rest, it’s nothing but leaf mulch everywhere you turn …. and yup, have a leaf blower too, although the circling wind does a better job 😉
Love the tanka part of the prose story …. especially the blue jaws squawking … I can picture it so well in my mind, having had the same experiences 😉
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Thank you. The jays probably would have appreciated having ear protectors. 🙂
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I haven’t counted my trees, but if I google my place in summer you can barely see the green of the back yard. Some where here, I put some in, and the birds gifted a bunch too. This year we finally had to take down some dead pines that were over 25 years old – gifts of youthful school Arbor Days.
I’ve kept some leaves for compost. But our township also collects the leaves for the township compost area. In the spring they charge per gallon I think if you want compost. I only did that once. I just use my own fallen leaves now. 😀
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I have a 10×20 area (4 ft. high) that I fill with leaves every year. It’s in the lower corner and fenced around some trees. It compacts every year (9th autumn, so far). The image above is from a plat map website. This image (below) is from Google, and you can see how it’s a canopy. The deck isn’t even visible.
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Yep, my lot is like that. The squirrels are able to use the limbs as ‘air’ bridges 🙂
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